See what U.S. drones are doing in Pakistan

Posted at 9:50 AM on December 12, 2011 by Jon Gordon (5 Comments)
Filed under: War

We didn't intend for the first two posts of the day to be about military drones. Sometimes things just happen that way.

Wired's excellent Danger Room blog is posting rare photos of destruction believed to have been caused by U.S. drones in Pakistan. Danger room warns that some of the photos are disturbing. Excerpt:

The CIA may have launched 70 drone strikes in tribal Pakistan in 2011 alone. But Americans, like the rest of the world, have no idea what the area looks like, or who lives there.

One resident of North Waziristan wants to expose the conflict. Noor Behram has spent years photographing the aftermath of drone strikes, often at personal risk. Working with Islamabad lawyer Shahzad Akbar and London-based human rights activist Clive Stafford Smith, who are helping get his photos to the outside world, Behram provided Danger Room with dozens of his images, none of which have ever been published in the United States.

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Comments (5)

The problem with drones is that they permit some techie who was weaned and programmed on violent video games to kill from a distance, without any physical or moral risk whatsoever.

Anyone who is controlling those things should be required to go to a childrens burn ward as part of their training.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | December 12, 2011 10:43 AM

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"Anyone who is controlling those things should be required to go to a childrens burn ward as part of their training."

I hope you feel the same way about shock and awe bombing and artillery shelling.

I know I do.

Posted by David | December 12, 2011 10:58 AM

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David, I think that one of the requirements for being elected to congress should be that all of the candidates' children have to serve on the front lines whenever we decide to throw a war.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | December 12, 2011 12:41 PM

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With apologies to Gertrude Stein, a bomb is a bomb is a bomb.

Posted by John P II | December 12, 2011 1:09 PM

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JP II -"a bomb is a bomb is a bomb."

Yes, they're all bad. Agreed.

But while some are designed primarily to destroy buildings, others are designed specifically to inflict human physical pain and suffering.

Consider yourself fortunate if you haven't experienced the difference.

Posted by Jim Shapiro | December 12, 2011 8:07 PM

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